Τετάρτη, 2 Δεκεμβρίου 2015

Saint Porfyrios the Kafsokalyvitis († 1991)

Due to the Holy Vigil took place at the Monastery in honor of St. Porfyrios of Kafsokalyvitis,
and the fact that the "Elder", St. Porfyrios was the spiritual father
of the sisterhood of the Monastery of Pantokrator Tao, and revealed many
facts about the life and martyrdom of the 179 Holy Fathers, the
following tribute is cited.

A Brief Biography

Saint Elder Porphyrios, named Evangelos Bairaktaris came into the world on February
7, 1906 AD, in the village of Agios Ioannis, in the province of
Karystia, in Euvoia. His parents, Leonidas Bairaktaris and Helen, nee
Anthony Lambrou, were pious and God-fearing people. His father was a
church cantor of the village and had personally met St. Nektarios. The
Saint's parents, who were poor farmers, struggled to support their large
family. That is why his father had to leave for America to work on the
construction of the Panama Canal.

Young Evangelos was the fourth child of
the family. He was guarding sheep on the mountains and had just attended
the first grade of primary school, when, due to extreme poverty, was
also forced to go to Halkida to work. He was only seven years old. He
worked for two or three years in a store. Afterwards, he went to
Piraeus, where he worked for two years at the grocery store of a
relative.

At the age of twelve he secretly left
for Mount Athos, with the desire to imitate Saint John the Kalivitis,
whom he particularly loved after having previously read about his life.
The grace of God led him to the hut of St. George at Kafsokalyvia where
he submitted himself to two Elders, to Panteleimon, who also was a
spiritual father, and Ioannikios. They were both brothers in the flesh.
He devoted himself to the two Elders, who were particularly severe, but
with great love and with a spirit of absolute obedience.

He became a monk at the age of fourteen
and was named Nikitas. After two years he was tonsured into the Great
Schema. Shortly thereafter, God gave him the gift of discernment.

At the age of nineteen, the Elder fell
seriously ill, which forced him to leave Mount Athos for good. He
returned to Euvoia, where he stayed at the Monastery of St. Charalambos
of Leukon. A year later, in 1926 AD, at the age of twenty, he was
ordained a priest at St.Haralambos in Kimi by Porphyrios III, Archbishop
of Sinai, who gave him the name Porphyrios. At the age of twenty-two he
became a spiritual father and confessor, and a little later an
archimandrite. For a time he worked as a chaplain at Tsakaious, a
village in Euvoia.

He lived in Euvoia, at the Holy
Monastery of St. Charalambos, for twelve years, ministering the people
as a spiritual father and a confessor; and three years in Upper Vatheia
at the abandoned monastery of St. Nicholas.

In 1940 AD, on the eve of the Second
World War, Elder Porphyrios established residence in Athens, where he
was appointed chaplain and spiritual father at the Polyclinic of Athens.
As he himself said, he lived there for thirty-three years as one day,
relentlessly exercising the spiritual work and relieving the pain and
illness of people.

Since 1955 AD he had settled in
Kallisia, where he had leased, from the Holy Monastery of Penteli, the
small monastery of St. Nicholas with the rural area that surrounded it,
which he cultivated with great care. Here, at the same time he practiced
his rich spiritual work.

In the summer of 1979 AD, he settled at
Milesis with the dream of building a monastery. In the beginning, he
lived in a caravan, under particularly difficult conditions. And
afterwards, in a modest cell made from concrete blocks, where he
endured without complaint the many trials of his health. In 1984 AD, he
was transferred to a building of the monastery under construction for
which the Elder, despite his blindness and severe illness, worked
tirelessly and relentlessly to complete. With the foundation of the main
church of the Monastery of Transfiguration, on February 26, 1990 AD, he
was indulged to see his dream come true.

During the last years of his earthly
life he began preparing for his death. He desired to retire on Mount
Athos, on his beloved Kafsokalyvia where he would give his soul to the
Bridegroom secretly and quietly as he had lived. Many times I heard him
say: "Even now that I have grown old, I seek to go and die up there.”

Indeed, in June 1991 A.D., foreboding
his end, and wanting to avoid all honours in his funeral, he departed
for St. Giorgios’ hut at Kausokalyvia of Mount Athos-where he first
became a monk 70 years before. It was at 4:31’ in the morning on 2
December 1991 A.D. when he delivered his spirit to the Lord, whom he so
much loved throughout his life.

The Holy and Sacred Synod of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate decided for the Elderly Porfyrios’
classification as a Saint during the session which took place on 27
November 2013 A.D. under the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomeos.

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